To Westboro Baptist Church, and any who subscribe to the belief that God hates homosexuals: I do not believe in God, but I am certain that if He did exist, He would not hate gays. The teachings of His son, Jesus, make this all too clear. Jesus wanted you to love your neighbors (Matthew 22:39); and gays and any member of the LGBTQ community are your neighbors. Just as you are human, they are human: they breathe; they cry; they feel; and yes, they do love, and they do so in the same way in which you love. Simply, they are your neighbors. Now, you may find yourself unable to believe that they are your neighbors. They are, you may claim, an abomination (Leviticus 18:22). Because of their abominable behavior, you may feel that you must hate them. You may not even just feel the need to hate them; you may act upon this need and actually display animosity towards them. Should you hate them, or even if you should simply fail to recognize them as your neighbors, then gays are, by definition, your enemies. After all, they must be either your neighbor or your enemy; there is no shade of gray. But this poses a problem for your argument: remember that Jesus wanted you to love not only your neighbors, but your enemies as well (Luke 6:35). If Jesus and his father wanted you to love your neighbors and your enemies, and if gays must fall into one of those categories, then you are, by the word of God, obligated to love them. Since Jesus was "the Word made flesh" (John 1:14) -- that is, God in human form on earth -- we must understand that if Jesus wanted us to love all people, this desire came from his father: God, then, must want us to love all people. If God wants us to love all people, He Himself must love all people. If He does not love all his creations but still wants us to love them, then He is a hypocrite. The ontological argument states that God is "that being than which no greater can be conceived." Because sincerity -- defined as acting in the same way in which one wishes others, especially those for whom one is responsible, to act -- is greater than hypocrisy (clearly the opposite of sincerity), God, in order to be "that being than which no greater can be conceived," must be sincere instead of hypocritical. So, God must love all His creations. Therefore, in claiming that God hates homosexuals and in perpetuating this supposed hatred, you fail to live up to the standard that God -- and His son -- set for you. But you still hate gays, huh? Well, this poses an even greater and more daunting dilemma for you: if you find yourself unable to live up to the teachings of your Lord, then you, by definition, cannot be a Christian. Therefore, in calling together such a congregation -- like the one that attends Westboro Baptist -- you represent the God you supposedly love in a false and inaccurate light. If you love God -- and I do believe that you really, truly do -- then you must not represent Him incorrectly. If you represent Him in such a way that is untruthful to His true character, then you are, in effect, worshiping a god that is not the God whom you intend to worship; you are putting a false god before your actual God. This, as we know, is against the true God's Commandments (Exodus 20:3). Either live your life in the way in which God clearly intended you to live it, or disband your false worship. With all respect and love that are due my fellow men and women, Edward J. Horan